Jeronimus Segersz (d. 1551)

Jeronimus Segersz (Jeronimus Woutersz) was an Anabaptist martyr that burned at the stake at Antwerp, Belgium on 1 September 1551. His wife Lysken Dirks, who had been arrested at the same time, was executed on 19 February 1552 after she had given birth to a child. All the Dutch martyr books, from the Offer des Heeren of 1562 to van Braght'sMartyrs' Mirror, contain several letters which the pair exchanged while both were imprisoned at the Steen castle of Antwerp. Ten letters were written by Jeronimus, three by his wife. These letters give a striking presentation of both martyrs' fate and piety. They also contain considerable information about congregational life in those days as well as about the practices of the inquisitors. No other documents give us such a deep impression of the "faith of out fathers" as these letters. In the Offer des Heeren the letters are followed by a hymn to commemorate the steadfastness of this couple, beginning "God de Heere is ghetrouwe, hij troost de zijne vroech en spaey" (God the Lord is faithful, He comforts His own early and late). Jeronimus by trade was a tinker or coppersmith. One of his descendants was Herman Zegers, Mennonite preacher at Utrecht, Netherlands, who in 1632 signed the Dordrecht Confession.

Braght, Thieleman J. van. The Bloody Theatre or Martyrs' Mirror of the Defenseless Christians Who Baptized Only upon Confession of Faith and Who Suffered and Died for the Testimony of Jesus Their Saviour . . . to the Year A.D. 1660. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1951: 504-522.